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Back Issues 19.02.04

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An attack on the NUJ’s magazine, The Journalist, was made at a meeting of the union’s Exeter branch. It was said the magazine had “unfortunate similarities with the underground press” and represented journalists as “long-haired militants”. Another criticism was that it used violent words like “Scab” and “Blackleg” in headlines. There was a move to tell the union not to send it to Exeter any more, but Derek Puddepha successfully argued that it would be wise to continue to read The Journalist “to see what the militants are up to”.

Sales of Woman’s Own in the six months to December reached 1,691,367 – its best for four years. Another big seller was the TV Times, which reached a record circulation of 3,915,016. Also in tune with its readers was music weekly Melody Maker, now defunct, which was averaging sales of 207,704.

BUNNY FOR YOU

Entertainers Ronnie Corbett and Les Dawson and a bunch of bunny girls were among the guests at the Manchester Press Ball at the Piccadilly Hotel.

MEN ONLY PULPED

More than 320,000 copies of Men Only, seized by UK customs after arriving from printers in the Netherlands, were ordered to be destroyed. It followed a High Court case in which a jury found that the publication was indecent.

CURRAN CHARGE

A 29-year-old Ed Curran was appointed assistant editor of The Belfast Telegraph. e had joined the paper in 1966 after graduating from Queen’s University. He went on to edit Sunday Life, andWales on Sunday and is now editor of The Belfast Telegraph.

MOUSTACHIOED MAESTRO

One of the mightiest moustaches in newspaper history was on parade as colleagues paid tribute to sports cartoonist Roy Ullyet, who was celebrating 21 years at the Daily Express. Press Gazette described Ullyet’s remarkable hairy handlebars as a “record-breaking wide-screen RAF moustache which a wartime congregation in a Kansas church once gave a standing ovation”. Other cartoonists at the El Vino bash to honour Ullyet, second from the right, were, from left, Barry Appleby, Osbert Lancaster, Carl Giles and JAK.

ILLEGAL SPIN

Daily Express Scottish motoring correspondent Alistair Cameron felt the long arm of the law after he went for a spin on a US police motorbike in London. One police officer pressed a button on the bike and up popped a telescopic rod with a flashing light. “That’s not legal,” Cameron was told. The machine had been on display in the Daily Express’s window in Fleet Street.

NICE PERFORMANCE

Press Gazette noted that a former reporter on the Essex County Standard and the East London Advertiser was to appear with his band on BBC Two’s Old Grey Whistle Test rock show. The reporter was Steve Nice, who changed his name to Steve Harley and led Cockney Rebel.

PROFICIENT PROSSER

Allan Prosser, who went on to edit the Northern Echo and run a successful editorial consultancy, had won the Guild of Editors’ Prize as one of the top trainees in the NCTJ’s Proficiency Test. He was then on the Middlesex County Times and had trained at Harlow.